Casa Alto Perú

Located in a small gated community of five lots—resulting from the subdivision of a former quinta in San Isidro—the house is positioned at the front of the site, freeing the rear as a private north-facing garden.

The project responds to the demand for a house of a certain volume and adopts a strategy of compactness that preserves the proportion between built area and open space. In this way, the garden acquires a generous scale in relation to the whole and becomes the true heart of the project.

Unlike what often occurs with mandatory side setbacks—which frequently become residual spaces—the design integrates them into the life of the house. Through openings and a carefully developed landscape design, vegetation penetrates and surrounds the dwelling, reinforcing its connection with the immediate surroundings.

On the ground floor, the public spaces of the house are organized. A home office, with dual access allowing for flexible use, responds to new ways of living that have emerged since the pandemic. The kitchen and dining area are located in one wing, while the living room occupies the opposite end. Both are articulated through an داخلی courtyard that provides natural light and ventilation, creating a singular spatial condition within the gallery.

The gallery, which spans the width of the rear façade, promotes outdoor living alongside the garden and at the same time functions as a terrace for the bedrooms on the upper floor. This element allows the house, when viewed from the garden, to maintain a low scale, favoring its integration with the surroundings. From the entrance, a staircase descends to a basement level where a private exercise space is located, naturally lit by a small lightcourt. The double-height entrance hall establishes a visual relationship with the internal courtyard and the exterior space, and organizes vertical circulation toward the upper level.

On the upper floor, a shared space connects the bedrooms, forming an antechamber equipped with a library, desk, and sitting area. This space opens to the south through a large window, providing controlled natural light and framing the view.

Constructively, the ground floor is resolved as a heavy, table-like concrete structure finished with white render. In contrast, the upper floor is built in steel frame, clad in dark-colored sheet metal that continues over the roof, emphasizing its lightweight and suspended character.

The house is organized through a series of decisions that seek to balance compactness and openness, weight and lightness, privacy and shared living. The differentiated structural system between the two levels, the active incorporation of side setbacks as part of the inhabitable space, and the articulation between interior and exterior through courtyards and galleries define a way of living attentive both to the site and to contemporary forms of family life.